NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Images Confirm Jezero Crater Is an Ancient Martian Lake

Tags:

Why in the news?

The first scientific analysis of images taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover has now confirmed Mars' Jezero crater, which today is dry.

• It was once a quiet lake, fed steadily by a small river some 3.7 billion years ago.

Additional information:

What is NASA's Mars 2020 mission?

• The latest robotic explorer to land on Mars as part of NASA’s ongoing Mars 2020 missions is a rover called Perseverance. The rover is designed to explore the Martian surface looking for signs of past and present life on the planet to contribute to NASA’s Mars Exploration Program’s science goals.
• The program found that its northern polar cap has a temperature below −110 °c and that the water vapor content in the atmosphere of Mars is five thousand times less than on Earth. No signs of life were found on Mars.
• Rover name: Perseverance
•  Launch date: 30 July 2020
•  Landing date: 18 February 2021 
• Landing site: Jezero Crater
•  Mars Mission duration: At least one Mars year (roughly 687 Earth days)